- Thread starter suarezn
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If you're a tourist and you still think you can drive in The DR...
I wouldn't consider you a tourist...not in the "just got off the plane" tourist sense anyway.
I do agree with you about driving yourself. When I have to work Mexican border towns a lot of Americans who work with me are scared to drive and instead always ride with someone else. They feel if a Mexican is driving somehow this is safer from accidents as well as potential kidnapping. I always drive myself because I don't want to put my fate on someone else's hands and specially since I don't really know these people they could be the ones setting me up to be kidnapped, robbed, etc...
This is the best way to approach it for 99% of the time. Just don't be in a hurry.
As far as teeing off the wrong person, as long as you don't hit anybody here this is unlikely to happen. In the States it is likely to happen and has happened to me on more than one occasion.
I haven't adapted completely because I still call anybody who unexpectedly pulls out in front of me an idiot, even though I knew they were going to do it. Oh well off to confession.
I have driven in this country for 7 yrs and about 120,000 miles (200k km) and haven't had an accident.....now there are some crazy drivers here, but if you can figure out how to drive defensively aggressive, you won't have a problem, something like what AZB says......if you can't figure it out then use a taxi you will be safer....my dad can drive in this country, but he will only drive on the north coast, never in any bigger cities....in SD he is always on pins and needles, and can't figure out why I can make the drive in and around the city with no problems....like I say defensively aggressive..
It amazes me how some people here have not figured this out. Of course Dominicans are more skillful when it comes to driving, that does not mean driving politely. I've been living in the US for 15 years and travel to the DR sometimes 3 times a year and adapt instantaneouly. Proof of this is that no matter how wider, more organized and how much friendlier people drive in the US, they seem to have more accidents. Almost everyday I go to work I see an accident, sometimes more than one in a 20 minute commute in a freeway that has 5 lanes on each side, and sometimes I think what if these people had to drive in the DR, there would be a crash every second.
As someone mentioned here before the best way to drive in the DR is "defensive agressively", and by the way we dominicans drive like this in the DR is because we can get away with it and we choose to do so, proof of this is that the second a Dominican drives in the US he or she obeys every rules just like everybody else.
The reason why "public cars" have so many dents is because they are bought very old to begin with, usually already dented so that they can get it cheaper and when they have an accident they don't carry insurance or "collision coverage i should say". Even if the accident is not their fault they'd rather get the money either from an insurance company or the driver at fault and not fix the dent and of course they have a better chance of having an accident when they drive 10 hours a day as opposed to your average 1 hour a day commute in the US.
Dominicans can drive in any country without difficulty, not the other way around. All that being said, I agree that there's a lot of room for improvement for us to make it easier to people who visit us and want to drive in our country, however people who go to another country have to adapt to that country's way of living and not expect otherwise.
As someone mentioned here before the best way to drive in the DR is "defensive agressively", and by the way we dominicans drive like this in the DR is because we can get away with it and we choose to do so, proof of this is that the second a Dominican drives in the US he or she obeys every rules just like everybody else.
The reason why "public cars" have so many dents is because they are bought very old to begin with, usually already dented so that they can get it cheaper and when they have an accident they don't carry insurance or "collision coverage i should say". Even if the accident is not their fault they'd rather get the money either from an insurance company or the driver at fault and not fix the dent and of course they have a better chance of having an accident when they drive 10 hours a day as opposed to your average 1 hour a day commute in the US.
Dominicans can drive in any country without difficulty, not the other way around. All that being said, I agree that there's a lot of room for improvement for us to make it easier to people who visit us and want to drive in our country, however people who go to another country have to adapt to that country's way of living and not expect otherwise.
Question -
who is the more skillful driver?
My mate Mike who can drift round corners, pull doughnuts, handbrake turns and reverse park with 6 inches at either end? He wrecked a few cars in his time.
Or my mum who potters around at 50ks frustrating the other drivers - but she never had an accident in 40 years of driving?
who is the more skillful driver?
My mate Mike who can drift round corners, pull doughnuts, handbrake turns and reverse park with 6 inches at either end? He wrecked a few cars in his time.
Or my mum who potters around at 50ks frustrating the other drivers - but she never had an accident in 40 years of driving?
I have no trouble driving here during the day, as I automatically assume everyone else on the road is an idiot and I will have to react to their poor driving. (It's a very judgmental and condescending attitude, I admit, but it does work.)
Driving at night, however, is a completely different matter. Motorcycles don't have lights and the drivers see no problem with driving the wrong direction on an unlit one-way street and then call me a bad name when I get too close. Public buses apparently do not have dimmer switches for the headlights. (Unfortunately, I am forced to drive after sundown because of work.)
But the one thing I have noticed is that I rarely see a dog on the road at night. Apparently they are smart enought to stay home.
Driving at night, however, is a completely different matter. Motorcycles don't have lights and the drivers see no problem with driving the wrong direction on an unlit one-way street and then call me a bad name when I get too close. Public buses apparently do not have dimmer switches for the headlights. (Unfortunately, I am forced to drive after sundown because of work.)
But the one thing I have noticed is that I rarely see a dog on the road at night. Apparently they are smart enought to stay home.
Another proof that even following the rules roads in America are NOT safer than in the DR. On my way to work taking I-95 south right on the exit to Lake Mead Pkwy I've counted 5 accidents this month so far, in the same spot all five, for the look of those accidents sadly there could be fatalities. In my experience driving in the DR I never witnessed 2 accidents in a row in the same place nonetheles five in the same month. It irks me that they cannot drive here as I'm always late for work due to their inability to be more skillful behind the wheel.
Not counting the many accidents I saw while going to California. Tomito had it right, we drive way better than average, we just don't follow rules in the DR and that makes it an organized chaos. For that poster with his ego wounded, it doesn't matter how much you reply back, you just have to accept it.
Not counting the many accidents I saw while going to California. Tomito had it right, we drive way better than average, we just don't follow rules in the DR and that makes it an organized chaos. For that poster with his ego wounded, it doesn't matter how much you reply back, you just have to accept it.
my mother in law. 82. drives in santiago, daily. and daily she smacks, smashes and scratches her car
Try driving or even parking your car in Paris, France. If you see a car there without dents it must be less than an hour old... lol
I have driven millions of miles in my life as sales-director all over Europe, and this way you do acquire certain skills and insights which makes driving over here seem quite safe and reasonable, once you adapt to the local unwritten rules.
The worst drivers in the world (generalising here, and I am sure this does not apply to DR1-posters... lol) I have ever experienced are the NA's. They are very good in driving straight, and parking in mall parking lots, and are superior in drive-thru's. But the moment they have to take a curve, whether on a bike or in a car, they panic and are lost...
Mind you, I do not like driving here at night, because of the facts mentioned here (moto's with no lights, people walking in the middle of the street, preferably wearing black, etc...), but especially because of the fact that they only know one light setting, which are high beams...
I have driven millions of miles in my life as sales-director all over Europe, and this way you do acquire certain skills and insights which makes driving over here seem quite safe and reasonable, once you adapt to the local unwritten rules.
The worst drivers in the world (generalising here, and I am sure this does not apply to DR1-posters... lol) I have ever experienced are the NA's. They are very good in driving straight, and parking in mall parking lots, and are superior in drive-thru's. But the moment they have to take a curve, whether on a bike or in a car, they panic and are lost...
Mind you, I do not like driving here at night, because of the facts mentioned here (moto's with no lights, people walking in the middle of the street, preferably wearing black, etc...), but especially because of the fact that they only know one light setting, which are high beams...